ACEC/MW Facilities Chair Luncheon Recap and Committee Overview

• By: Kyle Urda, P.E., Facilities Chair
• On: 10/07/2019 14:12:26
• In: Committee Chair Comments
• Comments: 0

As summer comes to the close and proposal season is in full swing, ACEC Metropolitan Washington kicked off the fall line-up of network luncheons with a seasonally appropriate topic of colleges and universities.  We were thrilled to host four speakers representing George Mason, the University of Maryland, and Northern Virginia Community College.

Bill Olen, Executive Director, Department of Planning and Construction at University of Maryland (UMD), shared some of the challenges encountered during construction of the Iribe Center.  These challenges were expected while erecting a glass exterior building with multiple radiuses making the curved exterior.  He also shared how the UMD transition to primarily D/B procurement is helping to reduce risk to both the University and builders.

Attendees were able to hear from a procurement personnel's perspective during the presentation by Alex Iszard, Director of Contracts and Capital Finance at George Mason University.  Alex shared the upcoming project to replace one of the older Arlington Campus buildings with a School for Computing and Institute for Digital Innovation.  While planned for years, this campus is expected to have great synergies with the coming Amazon HQ2 development.
Northern Virginia Community College was gracious enough to send two representatives: Martha Cardoza, Associate Director, Planning & Project Management, and Mike Graham, the VCCS Capital Outlay Contracts Officer.  They spoke on various contracting methods that their team uses to support the largest higher education organization in Virginia.  They also shared a great opportunity available to the engineering community - the Construction and Professional Services Manual seminars which are offered multiple times a year by the Division of Engineering and Building.  As the author of this blog can attest, not only is it a fantastic way to gain a better understanding of how to do work for the State of Virginia, it is an excellent networking opportunity.  Attendees include members of A/E firms and employees of agencies from around the state.

I am privileged to be this year's Chair of the ACEC/MW Facilities Committee.  Coordinating the Colleges & Universities luncheon is a joint effort between the ACEC/MW Programs Committee and the Facilities Committee.  The Facilities Committee does the chief part of contacting organizations and lining up representatives to come and speak concerning the goings on at the organization, work in progress, and potential contracting opportunities for the ACEC engineering community at large.  The Facilities Committee isn't limited to helping with the networking luncheons. Throughout the year we work to come alongside organizations and partner with them.  We hold partnering meetings where ACEC delegations meet with organizations, and we have ACEC member lead lunch-and-learns requested by partner organizations.  A sample of the organizations we partner with includes GSA, NAVFAC, DC DGS, and Fairfax County.  If you are interested in getting involved in the ACEC/MW Facilities Committee, please do!

 Kyle Urda, P.E., Summer Consultants, Inc.